Standout Sundance Docs ‘Navalny,’ ‘My Old School’ Sell Wide for Dogwoof (EXCLUSIVE)

All good things must come to an end. Pete Davidson has confirmed he is leaving Saturday Night Live after eight seasons, and the season 47 finale on Saturday, May 21, will be his final episode.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorErotic love story “99 Moons,” which has its world premiere in Cannes’ ACID sidebar today, has kicked off international sales. Berlin-based M-Appeal is handling the rights to the film, which is directed by Jan Gassmann.Arthouse VOD platform Filmin has taken the rights in Spain, and arthouse distributor StraDa Films has taken the films for Greece. France and Latin America are in negotiation.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefEpic Pictures Releasing has licensed North American rights to Korean action film “Hot Blooded,” from leading Seoul-based film sales agency Finecut. The deal is one of several struck by the agency ahead of Cannes, where it is also launching sales on Critics’ Week title “Next Sohee.”Starring Bae Doona and Kim Si-eun, “Next Sohee” is directed by Jung July, whose acclaimed “A Girl at My Door” played in Un Certain regard in 2014.

Amber Heard took the stand once again Tuesday to continue facing the intense cross-examination about her relationship with her former husband, actor Johnny Depp.

Flume has addressed working with collaborators for his new album ‘Palaces’, including his hero Damon Albarn who made him feel “nervous”, as well as the influence of the late SOPHIE.The Australian DJ and producer, real name Harley Edward Streten, told NME in an In Conversation video interview that Albarn is one of his musical heroes, so he found the experience of working with him on the album’s title track particularly nerve-wracking.“We were both playing the LA festival Life Is Beautiful and linked up afterwards, and went to some weird studio in the middle of nowhere in the desert,” Streten told NME about the Albarn collaboration, recalling that he played him a bunch of music.“I was nervous because I’m a huge fan,” he added, having showed Albarn lots of ideas, “but he didn’t like anything.”In fact, it was only the second to last track on ‘Palaces’ that piqued Albarn’s interest. “He was like ‘Alright, there’s something in this, this is cool’.”“After he came round to one of the songs, I did think ‘Thank fuck for that!” And having Albarn join him on-stage at Coachella to play piano during the debut live performance of their collaboration was a “really special moment”.

EXCLUSIVE: Clara Rugaard (I Am Mother) and Kit Harington (Game Of Thrones) are set to star in a new movie about the life and circle of Frankenstein scribe Mary Shelley.

Manori Ravindran International EditorIn one of the first major deals of the Cannes market, Sony Pictures Classics has swooped on Un Certain Regard title “All The People I’ll Never Be.” The distributor has picked up rights in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.The film, which is written and directed by Davy Chou (“Diamond Island”), will be re-titled as “Return to Seoul.” It premieres in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday.The pic centers on 25-year-old Freddie, who impulsively returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. The headstrong young woman starts looking for her biological parents in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new and unexpected directions.

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“The Lioness” (Doubleday), out now, struck. “I emerged from the theater into this cobalt blue sky, steaming heat. Ten minutes earlier I had been watching this movie. And I thought, ‘My God, I love Hollywood! Why have I never written a Hollywood novel?” he says.

Millions of householders are receiving their new energy bills and those homes supplied by Shell might find the amount they pay has risen drastically.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBen Stassen’s nWave Studios (“The Son of Bigfoot,””Sammy”) is set to produce “The Inseparables,” a $25 million animated feature based on an original idea by Joel Cohen et Alec Sokolow, the Oscar-nominated writers of “Toy Story.”The feature is being jointly produced by nWave Studios in Belgium, Octopolis in France and A Contracorriente in Spain.Cohen and Sokolow penned the feature with Cal Brunker, Bob Barlen (“Paw Patrol,” “Bigfoot”), Matthieu Zeller and Jérémie Degruson.Degruson, who previously directed some of nWave Studios’ biggest animated hits “The House of Magic,” “Bigfoot Junior” and Bigfoot Family,” is on board to helm “The Inseparables.”The animated buddy movie follows the misadventures of Don, a runaway puppet with a boundless imagination and, DJ Doggy Dog, an abandoned stuffed animal toy in need of a friend, as they cross paths in Central Park and pair up against all odds for an epic adventure of friendship in New York City. The movie will be delivered in July 2023 in both 2D and 3D formats.

Jennie Punter Mila Aung-Thwin, a producer on 2022 Sundance Special Jury Award winner “Midwives,” will direct a feature documentary about Tiberiu Uşeriu (a.k.a. Romania’s Ice Man), an extreme ultramarathon champion who turned his life around after serving time in a German high-security prison for armed robbery, the filmmaker told Variety during Toronto’s Hot Docs festival.Aung-Thwin, a cofounder of the acclaimed documentary production company EyeSteelFilm, is this year’s recipient of Hot Docs’ Don Haig Award, which is given to an outstanding independent Canadian producer with a film in the festival in recognition of their creative vision and entrepreneurship.“Ultra” (working title) producers include Cristian Nicolescu (“Donbass,” “Quo vadis, Aida?”), EyeSteelFilm’s Bob Moore, and Lithium Studios’ Mike MacMillan.

Christopher Vourlias “Million Dollar Pigeons,” which had its world premiere this week at Hot Docs, follows a colorful cast of pigeon masters from far and wide who compete in the most lucrative pigeon races on the planet. Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer, and speaks to the director, Irish filmmaker Gavin Fitzgerald.The third documentary feature from Fitzgerald, the film enters the world of the passionate “pigeon fanciers” who put their reputations and livelihoods at stake in pursuit of ever-growing prize purses.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterAmber Heard broke down in sobs on Thursday as she told a jury that her ex-husband Johnny Depp had sexually assaulted her with a bottle during a fight in Australia.Heard took the stand for the second day, as she continued to recount a series of violent incidents that marked their relationship. She said that the fight in Australia — during filming of the fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” film in March 2015 — was prompted by Depp’s jealousy and her concern about his drug use.She said that Depp had repeatedly hit her, threw bottles at her, and choked her against a refrigerator, before finally getting her on top of a countertop and penetrating her with a bottle.“I remember just not wanting to move,” she said.

Rough seas! Viewers have had a front row seat to some of the biggest reality TV feuds since the Below Deck franchise debuted in 2013.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO Max is developing Motherland Bounce, a comedy based on the life of Hasidic hip-hop star Nissim Black, from writer/comedian Moshe Kasher and The Gilded Age executive producer/director Salli Richardson-Whitfield as part of her overall deal with HBO.